Players Around the Globe Are Looking to Play More in India: Michael Atherton

Former England skipper Michael Atherton believes that players around the world are looking to play plenty of cricket in India. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has drastically changed the game and more players are willing to get the Indian experience under their belt.

It is always believed that subcontinent players look forward to playing in the County Cricket to get the experience of playing in the English conditions.

However, Atherton believes more players are looking forward to playing in India given the growth of Indian cricket in the last decade.

Atherton shares his views on the game.

“Very much so, it is an ambition of all the young England cricketers to go play international cricket in India for various reasons, for the passion, the support and also the Indian Premier League for all the reasons mentioned. We had the most number of cricketers going and playing this year, a dozen or so. I was there for 10 days and bumped into a few of them and they were having a fine time. For the first time, they had missed the start of the English season. One couldn’t imagine it in our times,” Atherton said at Sourav Ganguly book launch.

Atherton added no one had thought that there would be some drastic changes in the gentleman’s game.

India is now the main hub of cricket. In fact, former England opener Atherton played only a solitary Test match in his career in the Indian conditions.

“Who would have thought it a few years ago? It’s remarkable how it has changed, the ambition to go there (to India) and play. If I look at my own case, I have played 100-plus Tests and I have played one Test match in India. That wouldn’t happen today, the draw of India for all kinds of reasons — cricketing, commercial, that draw is there”.

Furthermore, Atherton went on to add that the national teams should not lose their identity.

The former England captain Atherton said that teams should be authentic to themselves.

“I agree that there is an exchange of ideas (Kumar Sangakkara had mentioned during the discussion), (but) I hope the national teams don’t lose their identities. You don’t want everybody playing the same way, (like) after what happened to Australia in South Africa, you would say (to Australia) ‘play like New Zealand, be nice and polite’. I wouldn’t like to see that”.